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Monday, March 01, 2010

The Killer Kindle Feature – Price

With the iPad coming soon talk of the tablet/MID device killing off the Kindle (and other eReaders) has been going strong. I would argue that this talk is premature – especially for those of us who actually still read books on a day-to-day basis. But even still, I’ll admit the iPad will definitely have an effect on the eReader market in some significant way. So how will the Kindle survive? The number one way will be price and that’s a great thing for the reading public.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Digital Daily blog, the ARM chip inside the Kindle devices has a new chip design that could (I repeat, COULD) drive prices of the Kindle’s most popular eReader device down around $150 or even below. I’ve always said the biggest negative for the Kindle is the high price. Put the Kindle at $99 or even just above that and you could easily pull in those hard-core readers who couldn’t justify the cost before. I’d probably even pick up a third Kindle for our family – one for myself if the price dropped that low.

What do you think? Would a $99 or $149 Kindle be enough to make you buy one? Or do you need an internet device that also functions as an eReader regardless of price difference?